Predicate is led by Alex Ward (“a compulsively creative polymath” – Stewart Lee; “one of those musicians who seems to get interesting music out of anything he touches” – Nate Dorward) and features Tim Hill on saxophones, Dominic Lash on double bass and Mark Sanders on drums. Ward writes the compositions for the group and plays electric guitar (he is also known in other contexts as a clarinettist). The music, while often taking a high-energy free-jazz approach as its starting point, also incorporates the electric aggression of rock, the abstract interplay of non-idiomatic improvisation and a diverse range of compositional tactics into an intense and unclassifiable whole. Predicate played their first show in February 2010, and since then have performed regularly around the UK including a Jazz Services tour in spring 2012. Their self-titled debut album was released on FMR records in 2012, and at this London Jazz Festival show they will be launching their new album "NAILS", out November 2013 on Gaffer Records.



ALEX WARD / electric guitar

Alex Ward is a composer, improviser, and performing musician, working primarily with clarinet and guitar. His involvement in freely improvised music dates back to 1986, when he met the guitarist Derek Bailey. He subsequently took part regularly in Bailey's Company events, and has gone on to become a major figure in British improvised music. His current work ranges from the duo Dead Days Beyond Help, in which he plays guitar and sings, his group Predicate who perform his compositions, regular improvising groups with Steve Noble, Kay Grant and others, as well as more ad hoc encounters with musicians as diverse as Thurston Moore, Joe Morris and Duck Baker.

He brings a unique energy and inventiveness to all these projects, elevating them far above the ordinary and injecting them with a thrilling sense of danger and possibility.



alexward.org.uk

TIM HILL / saxophones

Tim Hill is a musician, composer, performer and artist who has specialised in outdoor celebration and performance for over twenty years. He has been musical director for shows with Welfare State International, Desperate Men, Liverpool Lantern Company, Walk the Plank, Macnas, Manchester international Arts, Once Celebratory Arts and many others. He runs the bands Tongues of Fire, The Albion Horns, Twittering Machine and the Worlds Unknown trio (with Dominic Lash and Steve Noble). Tim has worked as an improviser and experimental musician in a wide variety of settings since the 1980s, playing with such musicians as Mike Cooper, Paul Burwell, John Edwards, Derek Bailey, Max Eastley, Pat Thomas, Roger Turner and Geoff Hawkins. He also plays, makes and researches period wind instruments and plays in the Mellstock Band, recreating and researching the English rural music making of the 18th and 19th centuries.



DOMINIC LASH / double bass

Dominic Lash is largely self-taught on double bass, which he took up in 2001, although he had played and studied bass guitar since 1994. Formerly an active member of the Oxford Improvisers Collective, Lash relocated to New York in March 2011, and is now based in Bristol. He has performed on the international stage with musicians as varied as Tony Conrad, Evan Parker and the late Steve Reid. In 2009 he toured in a quartet with Joe Morris, Tony Buck and Tony Bevan. He has performed with The London Improvisers Orchestra, Karl Berger's Stone Workshop Orchestra, various collaborations with the Swiss duo Diatribes, and in a trio with John Butcher and John Russell. He is also a member of the experimental music group The Set Ensemble and the transatlantic Convergence Quartet (with Taylor Ho Bynum, Harris Eisenstadt and Alexander Hawkins).



www.dominiclash.co.uk

MARK SANDERS / drums

Mark Sanders entered the London jazz scene in the 1980s, playing with Dudu Pukwana, Tim Richards, Dick Heckstall-Smith and Peter Nu. In the 1990s, he performed regularly with Paul Rogers and subsequently formed durable musical associations with two other bassists, Jah Wobble and John Edwards. He has recorded extensively and collaborated with many distinguished musicians including Elton Dean, Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Paul Rutherford, Howard Riley, Lol Coxhill, Barry Guy, Keith Tippett, Charles Gayle, William Parker, Johannes Bauer, Peter Evans, Myra Melford and Roswell Rudd. He has been a member of numerous improvising groups, including the ZFP quartet (with Carlos Zingaro, Simon Fell and Marcio Mattos) and SPEEQ (with Hasse Poulsen, Luc Ex and Phil Minton), while his interest in electronic music has been reflected in his work with DJ Sniff, Pat Thomas, Phil Durrant and electroacoustic composer John Wall.

"ubiquitous, diverse and constantly creative, drummer Mark Sanders always outdoes himself, whether playing with restraint or erupting like a dynamo." Bruce L Gallenter, Downtown Music Gallery. NY